Central to transnational organised crime is the facilitation of contraband entry across borders.
IUU fishing requires corrupt officials to issue illegal licences, ignore catches beyond their licensed amount (legitimate or otherwise), allow fishing outside the agreed zones and defy national, regional and international laws and regulations. States with pre-existing high levels of border corruption, in particular, often have their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones exploited by IUU fishers. Limited law enforcement due to minimal governance further worsens the issue. Somalia provides an interesting example.
Case Study: Somali fisher-cum-pirates
Abandonment of government-issued fishing licences opened Somali waters to IUU fishing during the 1990s. Authorities issued some licences to foreign fishing companies, although after the collapse of the country in 1991, limited oversight of licences led to widespread IUU fishing.
Somali warlords saw an opportunity to profit by selling false fishing licences to trawlers (United Nations Secretary-General 2011: paragraph 43). Warlords hired local fishermen to ‘intimidate and extort money from foreign fishermen who were unwilling to purchase [licences]’ (Advisory Council on International Affairs 2010: 14). The additional vessels fishing under false licences put further stress on the marine habitat. Adequate policing of these fishing practices was entirely absent (Advisory Council on International Affairs 2010: 14). Unsustainable fishing practices, worsened by the greed of the warlords, provoked fishermen to respond aggressively and pursue piracy.
Coastguards are an essential piece of the counter-IUU fishing response. When policing fails to detect and intercept IUU fishing activities at sea, it should be the role of port and border security to ensure that catches meet compliance requirements and are therefore suitable for market. Effective port regulation is essential, to prevent illegal catches from entering the market.
Illegal fishers evade effective port regulation before entering port, concealing their illegitimate catches through transhipment, mixing illegitimate with legitimate catches, making it virtually impossible to tell one from the other (Pew Charitable Trusts 2013; Phelps Bondaroff, Reitano &
van der Werf, 2015: 24; Martini 2013: 3). Limited, ineffective and corrupt border control facilitates and potentially exacerbates IUU fishing.
Training enables stricter border control. The international community offers law enforcement training on how to detect and respond to potential crimes crossing the border (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2018). Improving awareness through adequate training reduces the risk of corruption of port officials that allows illegal catches to enter the marketplace.
Conclusion
The chapter set out factors that enable IUU fishing and related maritime crimes, explained through crime opportunity and illegal enterprise theories. While legal and regulatory controls exist, alone these are insufficient in preventing IUU fishing and related crimes. Coupling controls and addressing the drivers enabling the crimes will reduce opportunity for offending.
Further research is needed to better understand the most appropriate institutional
configuration to lead to effective control of the marine environment, although some research has considered this (Lindley & Techera 2017). The use of emerging technology and further policing may also be critical to the success of IUU fishing control. A thorough understanding of drivers and implementation of regulatory controls should result in reduced opportunistic IUU fishing and related crimes.
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